The Government has done some good work with solar on farms, and EECA is also to be commended for its work raising awareness of the benefits of solar at a household level, but we reckon much more could be done to help out residential customers. That was what Energy Minister Simon Watts asked for last year, and that work was what Kirsty Johnston explored in her excellent piece.

We don’t necessarily need subsidies, although subsidies definitely speed things up and create industries and jobs. We need access to finance.

Our research shows that 75% of people want to electrify their homes and the upfront cost is the major barrier. But when you can reduce the cost of your monthly energy subscription straight away, that's not a cost, that's an investment.

So far, 18 councils have supported the Ratepayer Assistance Scheme, which could save homes with solar around $1,000 a year, including loan repayments. We now need the Government's support and a small investment and that's why we are trying to add the RAS to the Infrastructure Funding and Financing Amendment Bill going through Parliament now.

There are now around 80,000 New Zealand homes with solar and install rates are growing at record levels. But over four million homes in Australia have solar installed - over 40% of all homes - and there have been over 250,000 batteries installed as part of a subsidy scheme.

For those who think we don't get enough sun, New Zealand has about the same solar yield as Victoria and it has 30% adoption rates. Germany's is lower, but solar is surging over there and in many other European countries.

It's a no brainer for anyone who can pay upfront or add it to the mortgage, because solar is now so much cheaper than grid electricity (and recent research suggests it will also increase the value of your home when it comes time to sell).

One quirk of human behaviour that we often see is that people tend to focus on the difference in their bills before and after solar. They might forget that they had to pay upfront to access those savings, but as the price of electricity, gas and petrol goes up, that gap gets bigger.

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